1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a muffler suitable for an all terrain vehicle which is leaned against a support with its rear portion in contact with the ground for storage.
2. Description of Background Art
A known muffler for an all terrain vehicle is disclosed in, for example, JP-A No. H8-35416 for xe2x80x9cExhaust Mufflerxe2x80x9d. In a saddle type vehicle shown in FIG. 1 of drawings appended to the specification for JP-A No. H8-35416, rear wheels WR are suspended from a rear portion of a body frame B, a rear carrier is supported on the rear portion of the body frame B. An exhaust pipe 8 extends from an engine E and an exhaust muffler 9 is connected to a rear end portion of the exhaust pipe 8.
Generally, an all terrain vehicle, such as the prior art saddle type vehicle, is leaned against a support with its rear end in contact with the ground for storage. When it is desired to provide the exhaust muffler 9 with a high silencing ability, the exhaust muffler 9 must have an expansion chamber of a large volume. Consequently, the exhaust muffler 9 must be formed to have a large outside diameter or a long length. If the exhaust muffler 9 is formed to have a long length and the length extends rearwardly, the rear end of the exhaust muffler 9 will engage the ground when leaning the vehicle against a support and the vehicle cannot be leaned against the support.
Therefore, the vehicle requires a large-scale modification including an an extension of the carrier rearwardly or displacing the rear wheels rearwardly in order that the exhaust muffler 9 may extend rearwardly beyond the rear carrier or the rear wheels WR.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a muffler for an all terrain vehicle which may be leaned against a support with its rear portion in contact with the ground for storage and having an expansion for the muffler that can be easily modified to increase its volume.
According to a first aspect, a muffler is provided for an all terrain vehicle. The all terrain vehicle includes a body, an engine, a carrier supported on a rear portion of the body and rear wheels. The muffler extends rearwardly from an exhaust pipe connected to the engine and includes a rear end surface of the muffler that is parallel to the surface of the ground when the all terrain vehicle is leaned against a support with a rear end of the carrier and rear portions of the two rear wheels in contact with the surface of the ground.
When the all terrain vehicle is leaned against a support for storage, the rear end surface of the muffler is in parallel to the surface of the ground and the rear end of the carrier and the rear portions of the two rear wheels are in contact with the ground.
When leaning the all terrain vehicle against the support, the muffler does not touch the ground, the muffler does not need to be modified in a large scale and the volume of the expansion chamber of the muffler can be easily increased.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.